 Ernie and Shannon Elder, Assistant Director with Code Compliance, and they'll be assisting me with answering questions after the presentation. So with that, let's go ahead and get started. So here you'll see our presentation, again, this is on our website. These are our draft registration regulations and zoning options that we plan to present to the Fort Worth City Council in August. Next slide. So the outline will review our short-term rental regulations that we currently use. We'll review our goals for addressing short-term rentals, we'll review our proposed registration and operating standards for legal short-term rentals, we'll review zoning regulations in other cities in Texas and across the country, and then we'll review four zoning options that we as staff have identified for addressing illegal short-term rentals. So what is a short-term rental? There are residential properties available for rent, for guest lodging for a period of one to 29 days. Rentals that are 30 days or longer are considered regular rental and is an allowed use in residential property and within our residential zoning districts. So our current short-term rental regulations, we'll start with zoning. So the city is governed by zoning, all property within our city limits is subject to zoning, and the short-term rentals are allowed within our mixed use and form-based code districts. These are districts that allow a mix of commercial and residential uses. Short-term rentals are also allowed in commercial and industrial zoning districts with a certificate of occupancy from our development services department. The short-term rentals are not allowed in our residential zoning districts and you'll see the classifications listed there. We'll have a map on the next page which includes links to interactive websites where you can look up zoning for properties that you might be interested in and to see where the zoning allows short-term rentals. If we can go back to the previous slide, I'll switch to enforcement. So our code compliance department investigates short-term rentals on a complaint basis. So it's a more of a reactive process rather than proactive. And that's consistent with all of our occupancy complaints within residential dwellings and within other uses and structures as well. So when violations are observed, the code compliance department can issue warnings and citations to the property owners. But they cannot issue warnings or citations based on short-term rental advertisements or online bookings alone. They must prove that the short-term rental occurred, that the stay was less than 30 days and that funds changed hands. So in fiscal year 2021, which for the city of Fort Worth is October 1 of 2020 through September 30 of 2021, code compliance had 71 cases where there were complaints against short-term rentals. But they required 278 inspections and that's again because of the case they have to build in order to show that the short-term rental activity occurred. So that's one of the challenges that we'd like to address with our registration standards. So this is the map showing where short-term rentals are allowed and as mentioned they're allowed in our mixed use, commercial and industrial zoning districts. Those are depicted in green on the map and then the short-term rentals are not allowed in our residential districts and a few other districts like agricultural, community facility and the like. So again, there are links on our website within this PowerPoint presentation for you to get to interactive maps to learn more about where short-term rental is currently allowed. So in addition to zoning, short-term rentals are also regulated through hotel occupancy tax laws and ordinances. So both the state of Texas and city of Fort Worth ordinances require short-term rentals to pay hotel occupancy tax. The state levies 6% and the city levies 9% of revenues and the city's 9% goes to the Culture and Tourism Fund. Those dollars may only be used to promote tourism convention and hotel industries. They may not be used to enforce or monitor short-term rental activity. So sorry, back to, thank you. With regard to the collection of hotel occupancy tax, that currently is self-reported by property owners of short-term rentals or hotels through the city's online reporting tool. And we currently only allow short-term rentals that are zoned legally for short-term rental use to self-report and register through the city's reporting tool to pay hotel occupancy tax. Short-term rentals report on a voluntary basis currently and are not monitored by finance department. And so that's another issue that we'd like to address with our registration standards. So here are our goals for addressing short-term rentals. Number one, preserve the residential quality of neighborhoods and protect from commercial lodging and encroachment. Two, ensure health and safety of residents and guests. Three, support tourism in a balanced way. Four, preserve residential housing supply. Five, collect hotel occupancy tax from legal short-term rentals. And then lastly, number six, minimize the impact on staff and recover the costs for code enforcement of short-term rentals. So one of the documents that the city staff has used to help guide the regulations that we're proposing for city council come from the National League of Cities Guide for Short-Term Rentals. And within this presentation on our website, you're able to select the link there and get to the full guide if you'd like to review it. So we selected some of the policy levers that the National League of Cities recommended to achieve common goals for short-term rentals. First is to require an annual permit or registration process, excuse me, annual permit or registration and have a process to revoke permits. Second is to require host residency in residential areas. And host residency means having the owner of the property or the primary resident of the property be living on site where that's their primary home. And one of the reasons for that is that most complaints that National League of Cities has observed or learned from member cities is that most of the complaints come from non-owner occupied units. Next, the guide suggests restricting density of short-term rentals that could be based on a maximum number of short-term rentals allowed in an area or a percentage that might be allowed in a particular neighborhood or geographic area if short-term rentals are to be allowed in those neighborhoods. And then lastly, to dedicate resources to enforcement. So this slide covers our draft registration and operating regulations for legal short-term rentals. And our plan is to hire a third-party company or platform that would handle our registration and hotel occupancy tax collection as well as take complaints and pass on information to property owners. So first, we would collect an annual registration fee to cover the city's costs, both for the platform and for enforcement through code compliance. Next, again, the platform would be the tool for hot collection, and again those funds cannot be used for administration or enforcement. Then we would require that property owners register, be the ones to register the property on the website, or consent to that registration if they have an operator that performs the registration. And then that the registration would not be transferable if the property were sold. The owner would be required to provide a 24-7 local contact, so that would particularly be helpful in the case where owners might not live in the area, that they have liability insurance, that they provide an affidavit for safety protocols such as having smoke detectors, CO2 detectors, fire sprinklers and so on on the property. The rental would be limited to one guest or group at a time, so you wouldn't be able to rent out, say, individual bedrooms or portions of a home or a garage to different guests or groups. We would limit the occupancy to three people per bedroom with a maximum of nine people in the dwelling, and that's based on our current bed and breakfast regulations. And again that can be something that the City Council could hear different comments on with regard to the maximum occupancy. We would require onsite parking only with a parking plan required, so we would not allow guests to park on street. We would not allow events or parties to be in the dwellings with no outdoor gatherings or music after 10 p.m. We would require a good neighbor guide, and that would help provide information to guests about complying with Fort Worth's rules for noise, trash, parking and so on, and we have a good neighbor guide that we use within the TCU area today, which is based on a partnership with TCU and landlords and neighborhood leaders in the area, so that's been very helpful to us. We would then importantly require that if someone is advertising for short-term rental on an advertising platform such as Airbnb or HomeAway or VRBO, that in order to advertise that you must be registered with the City, and as part of that registration process we would determine whether that short-term rental use is legal in the zoning district where the property is located, and again only allow properties where the short-term rental use is legal to register with the City. And then lastly, we would provide the option for the registration to be placed on probation or be revoked based on violations that might occur, and that's similar to what we provide today within our multi-family rental registration program. Okay, next. So in addition, the other registration regulations we would have is to require that the advertising platforms that I mentioned that they only allow advertising for short-term rentals that are registered with the City of Fort Worth, and so there would be action that we would be able to take against those platforms if they did not comply with that requirement. And then lastly, that we require a Certificate of Occupancy when the short-term rental is not a primary residence when it's primarily a commercial lodging use, and so for example we don't require today a Certificate of Occupancy for single-family dwellings, but if it were used primarily as a commercial lodging use then we would require that Certificate of Occupancy, and with that we would apply our bed and breakfast, building, and fire code requirements in the inspection and issuance of that Certificate of Occupancy, okay. So next, in addition to the National League of Cities Guide, we of course looked at other cities regulations and found some common themes. Number one, that most cities differentiate primary residence short-term rentals from investor-owned short-term rentals, and they're generally more permissive with the primary residence short-term rentals and more restrictive with investor-owned. And then secondly, most cities require zoning changes or conditional use permits for investor-owned short-term rentals to operate in single-family districts, because again most cities are more restrictive and protective of their single-family zoning districts, and so this is consistent with the National League of Cities Guidance, okay. So this table lists out the information that we gathered from other cities in Texas and across the country, and so it won't go through each city but just wanted to show and highlight the column. So that second column is where you'll see the cities that differentiate primary residence versus investor-owned, and you'll see that most do. In the case of El Paso, they don't allow the short-term rental use in their residential districts at all. Next, we've got the requirement for a zoning change or a conditional use permit for investor-owned short-term rental in single-family districts, and again you'll see that most cities require that. The next column, limit density. Just a few cities limit the density. Austin, San Antonio, and Charlotte, North Carolina, and then lastly you'll see one city, the city of Arlington, Texas, that limits short-term rentals to a geographic area around their stadiums and entertainment district. And then lastly I'll point out that there are three states, Arizona, Florida, and Indiana, that we've found where the municipal authority to regulate with zoning has been preempted by state law, okay. So with regard to addressing illegal short-term rentals that are in residential zoning, we've identified four options for the city council to consider, but of course the city council can consider really any options that they might want beyond the four that staff has identified. The first option of course is to retain the current zoning ordinance regulations for short-term rentals. That would mean that we would continue to require a zoning change for short-term rentals in residential zoning. So that requires a public hearing and a vote by the zoning commission and the city council. And so the options would be for that property owner to rezone from residential zoning to a PD or plan development where it might be based on that residential zoning district but where the short-term rental use is added. So PD A5 plus short-term rental would be the wording we would use. The other option would be to rezone or request a rezoning to mixed use or commercial zoning, which might be an option for a residential property that's located adjacent to mixed use or commercial zoning. One of the things I need to mention is that none of the options that staff has identified would allow a short-term rental use as the main use of residential property by right within residential zoning districts. So that means again that we're the, if it's primarily used as commercial lodging, it's not owner occupied. We are not recommending that that be allowed by right in our residential zoning districts. Okay, next. So our second option beyond retaining our current ordinance is option one. Our second option is to treat short-term rentals like bed and breakfasts. And we have two types of bed and breakfasts within our zoning ordinance. We have bed and breakfast homes and bed and breakfast ins. And so we would follow that same split with regard to treating owner occupied short-term rentals like we do owner occupied bed and breakfast homes. And in order to have a bed and breakfast home within residential zoning, it requires a conditional use permit, which is a public hearing before the zoning commission and before the city council. And that conditional use permit would have a five-year time limit. And so it could be renewed at the end of that five years, but that would be a discretionary decision. The bed and breakfast homes are not allowed within single family zoning. Only properties within B2 family or our multi-family zoning districts can apply for a conditional use permit for a bed and breakfast home. And the ordinance further provides that there must be a 400-foot separation between bed and breakfast homes. The second category would be for investor-owned short-term rentals to treat them like bed and breakfast ins, which are also investor-owned. And again, it would require the conditional use permit with a five-year time limit. Again, would not be allowed in single family zoning. And in this case would only be allowed with a conditional use permit in high-density multi-family zoning. And so we would continue to require zoning change for short-term rentals in single family zoning with this option. So option three is a little bit more permissive. This would allow owner-occupied short-term rentals by conditional use permit in all residential districts, including single family districts. And we would suggest that the city council in considering these conditional use permits limit them to five to 10 percent of the block, or in the case of multi-family zoning, to five to 10 percent of that multi-family building. Second, we would allow investor-owned short-term rentals by conditional use permit in all of our multi-family districts, not just the high-density multi-family districts. And again, with the suggested limitation of five to 10 percent of the block or the multi-family building as a density limit. And then lastly, continuing to require zoning change for all the other situations. And our final option, option four, is the most permissive option that staff is recommending, which would be to allow owner-occupied short-term rentals by right in certain neighborhoods or citywide. And that would be a decision that would be considered by the city council. Again, we would, in this case, if it's by right, so there's not really discretion on a case-by-case basis, then we would want to require a density limit of five to 10 percent of the block or the multi-family building. We would want to limit the number of booking nights per year to 30 or fewer, so that we can ensure that the short-term rental use really is an accessory use to the primary residential use of the property by that owner. And then lastly, again, require a conditional use permit or zoning change for all other situations. Okay, and I believe that's our last slide. So at this point, I'll go ahead and turn to the questions that we've received to date. I've got a long list of them, so we'll start going through them and then I'll turn to Melinda and Shannon to help me answer a few of them. So let me go ahead and get started. So the first question is, what is a form-based district? So I mentioned the form-based district when we were discussing the areas where short-term rental is allowed by right, so it's a type of mixed-use district where residential and commercial uses are allowed by right and where the zoning is more concerned with the form or the shape of the building, the height and setbacks and so on, rather than separating uses within a building or within the district. Examples of form-based districts include the area north of downtown known as Panther Island, the near south side just south of downtown, Camp Bowie out going west of town, and then also the historic Stockyards District on the north side. I believe we also have Trinity Lakes is another form-based district that we have on the east side. All right, so next question, how should residents report problems such as noise and trash and et cetera at a short-term rental? And so, ask Shannon, do you have suggestions for how residents should report those problems? Yes, so there's several ways that you can report a code violation. You can use the My Fort Worth app, you can also go on the city's website, Fort Worth, Texas dot gov, all spelled out and submit a complaint there. If you'd like to talk to a person, you can call the call center at area code 817-392-1234. And then if it is a non-emergency police issue such as noise or on-street parking violations, you can call the non-emergency number at 817-392-4222. And then for emergency situations always call 911. Great, excellent. Thank you, Shannon. Okay, so the next question, can a short-term rental currently pay their hotel occupancy tax if they are operating illegally in a residential neighborhood? So the short-term rental operators or property owners can pay their state hotel occupancy tax. The city is not involved in that process. And in working with our finance department over this last year as city councils asked us to look into regulating short-term rentals more proactively, we learned that there were a few short-term rentals who had registered through the finance department's hotel occupancy tax platform that weren't in zoning districts where short-term rental was allowed. So our finance department has removed those properties from our hotel occupancy tax registration platform so they're not able to be registered with the city in order to pay their hotel occupancy tax. The city wants to have the registration be limited only to short-term rentals that are legal. So next, what violations could cause someone to lose their registration? And so that's still to be determined as we work through the registration ordinance and work with city council on how they'd like to proceed. But let me ask Shannon, do you have some examples since we do multifamily registration, some examples of things that we might consider in either revoking a registration or perhaps putting it on probation? Yes. So we have had discussions about we would place somebody's probation, somebody's registration on probation if they do not resolve their code violations in a timely manner. We've also discussed possible hazardous situations where we would revoke immediately. Okay, great. Melinda, anything else to add? So what we would potentially look at including in there are if they're violating other sections of the code that aren't really related to code violations such as the noise ordinance or parking kind of related to that. So all of that will be looked into and as we determine and work through with the council and with the community what to include in that ordinance. Okay, sounds good. So the next one next question is to describe the difference between a primary residence and an investor owned property. I touched on that during the presentation. So a primary residence short-term rental would be one where the owner is the primary resident of that property where that home is their primary residence and where the primary use of the property throughout the year is residential use rather than short-term rental. So an investor owned property is a property where the property owner does not live at the property does not reside there where it's not there or where it's not their their primary dwelling. Next question, how can you regulate if someone is using a homestead exemption for a short-term rental? So I believe the question is trying to get at someone who might be claiming the property as a homestead but where it's not their primary residence and where the primary use is short-term rental. And so with that we would ask that folks call that or reach out to the Terran appraisal district to report any separately from a bed and breakfast home or a bed and breakfast in. But again that's an option that the city council can consider is to treat the short-term rentals as we do bed and breakfasts. Okay, what is the difference between a plan development and a conditional use permit? So a plan development is a change to the base zoning. So for example, if you have A5 one-family zoning which is our most common single-family zoning district, if you have A5 one-family zoning and you want to request a zoning change to allow short-term rental, one of your options is to request a zoning change to PD plan development. So it's not an overlay, it's actually a change to the A5 zoning. So you would no longer have A5 zoning, you would now have PD plan development zoning that would be specific to that site and with certain uses and development standards as maybe requested or decided by the city council. So that's different from a conditional use permit where you would retain the A5 one-family zoning. And as Melinda mentioned, the conditional use permit is an overlay on top of that A5 one-family-based zoning. And again that conditional use permit as an overlay could expire as well as be revoked. Next is why was 400 feet chosen as a distance between short-term rentals? And that's actually that 400 feet comes from the bed and breakfast home ordinance. And so that was established I assume many years ago when the bed and breakfast home and bed and breakfast in standards were put in place. And so one of the things that we've talked about as staff is that it might make more sense to consider the percentage density limit if the city council wants to consider density limits rather than a distance or 400 foot distance type of separation since that can end up being somewhat arbitrary or perhaps not appropriate in some areas where for example on a given block one end of the block might be next to commercial or mixed-use zoning and the other end of the block is adjacent to residential and it's more less intense. So one end of the block is more intense and the other end of the block is less intense and so the 400 foot separation could end up creating or sort of compelling short-term rentals to be further into a neighborhood where it might make more sense to keep them close to a commercial or mixed-use district. Next it says Austin and San Antonio both have terrible registration compliance rates for short-term rentals why would you use them as models? So I don't know that we're modeling our registration ordinance after Austin and San Antonio it's just that they are two cities who have addressed short-term rentals we've reviewed them more with respect to their zoning ordinance than with respect to their their registration and compliance with registration. I think there what we're hoping is that if we have a well qualified vendor that's providing our registration platform and they've got access to the data mining tools that we're that we're seeking now to gather information about short-term rentals that hopefully that will help us be better informed and better able to require compliance with registration if the City Council decides to move forward with that. And then again a similar question about Austin has and I don't know if I haven't checked this information it says Austin has 17,000 short-term rentals up 5,000 from the last count last year they allowed owner occupied seems it's impossible to police and why so I'm not sure I can answer that question about their situation in Austin I don't know if you happen to have any insights for them yeah next what rules do you have in place to vet legal short-term rentals if you've not done that how will the city police the influx of new short-term rentals if the ordinance changes so again that's in terms of vetting legal short-term rentals so we would as you saw on the registration slide we would have a number of operating standards and requirements for a property to register as a short-term rental with the city's platform and so there would just be a lot of information required that would allow us to vet that that property in terms of policing or having an influx of new short-term rentals that's entirely dependent on whether the City Council chooses to change the zoning ordinance in any way to allow short-term rentals in either by riot or by conditional use permit and so again that enforcement would be done through the registration requirement and again through the potential addition of code compliance officers as we've mentioned are you staffed well enough to handle legal short-term rentals my sense is yes that we are I expect we'll find that most of the short-term rentals that we have in Fort Worth are not legal in fact I expect the vast majority are not legal so in terms of handling the registration for the legal short-term rentals that should be fairly fairly straightforward it won't require a zoning change or zoning action by by the zoning commissioner city council so that won't impact our development services staff and then with regard to the registration again that that's that should be hopefully a user-friendly platform that will be easy for property owners to use what's the crime rate in legal short-term rentals by comparison to the rest of the city we've not collected crime data on short-term rentals either legal or not legal in the city but I'll just ask Shannon or Melinda if you happen to have seen any information on that I have not yeah so again the council could ask for that information and we can follow up with our police department on that how will short how will the city prevent short-term rentals from being used as a as a base for crime does Fort Worth PD have any experience with this happening especially with gangs and I can assure you are for Fort Worth police department has extensive experience in dealing with all kinds of crimes and with gangs and so they're really an excellent force one of the best in the country so not worried about them from an ex about their experience and in terms of short-term rentals being a base for crime we've certainly heard people talk about crime and short-term rentals but we haven't necessarily seen that coral we haven't seen that correlation here in Fort Worth to this point do you have evidence again police reports code enforcement documentation of issues that justify regulating short-term rentals and I think here the evidence we have is of the short-term rentals that we've learned about that are operating illegally within our residential zoning and so that would justify us regulating them and also the issues I spoke of earlier about the difficulty that code compliance has in proving that short-term rental activity is occurring and so having a registration ordinance and registration platform should help us with with respect to enforcing our zoning ordinance and where short-term rentals are allowed but I'll ask Shannon if you have anything to and I agree with everything you said but part of our discussions that we have had is also regulating with the registration process requiring that you have a valid permit in order to advertise for a short-term rental and that will make it much easier to do the enforcement yes that's right so if if we see an advertisement or if our registration platform company sees an advertisement for a short-term rental on one of the common websites or on Facebook or wherever it might be that we learn about it then if we adopt the registration ordinance that would enable code compliance to follow up with that property owner to say you need to register correct correct okay how do you justify taking away property rights from individuals who rent for less than 29 days while not taking them away from individuals who rent for basically 30 days or more and so again that's a land use decision or land use discretion that cities have which is to address commercial lodging as as a different use than a residential use and so that's part of what state law speaks to and what our city ordinances speak to with regard to requiring the payment of hotel occupancy tax so that use is defined as a lodging activity as a public accommodation and so it is a different use than a residential use and we in other cities generally treat them differently under our zoning ordinance anything to add to that Melinda that'd be correct that's part of our home rule authority to be able to regulate within the city and so we're we're following that through our zoning ordinance yeah what other illegal commercial businesses will now be allowed in residential neighborhoods if the city our neighborhoods of the city of Fort Worth if short-term rentals are to be allowed and again if short-term rentals are to be allowed they would no longer be illegal and so we would not have other illegal commercial businesses being allowed in residential neighborhoods that's certainly not our intent is it true that once the city grants short-term rental permits to operate in residential areas those strs have to be grandfathered even if the city discovers they're impacting negatively impacting housing school enrollments or that the city doesn't have the resources needed to respond to nuisances and complaints in a timely fashion so so again the the see if I can clarify this so if the city council decides to allow a short-term rental in an area either in a residential neighborhood or in residential zoning districts where they're currently not allowed today then that's a change in the property rights for those for that neighborhood or that zoning district and so there would be no grandfathering that concept wouldn't be applicable short-term rentals if they're not operating legally today they they don't become grandfathered so it would just be they would either need to stop operating if we keep the ordinance as it is or they would need to seek a zoning change if we keep the ordinance as it is with regard to whether we discover some negative impacts from the short-term rentals over time if if the city council decided to allow for example a short-term rental as a with a conditional use permit as I mentioned they could put a time limit on that conditional use permit so that it could expire and that property owner would need to come back in and and request a renewal of that permit or stop operating but in terms of impacting housing or school enrollments certainly it's within the city council's authority to address the zoning ordinance over time and so if they were to make changes to the short-term rental zoning regulations they could decided a later date to revisit those regulations and and make changes at that point okay and then again this relates to that question should the DC should the city decide at a later time not to allow short-term rentals would there be a grandfathering for residents who can show legitimate and safe productive listings for those that have made careers or their livelihood doing it over time so again in order to grandfather the use would have to be legal within the zoning district at the time the zoning regulations change so today any short-term rentals that are operating within residential zoning districts are not legal and would not be grandfathered there's not a way to grandfather something that's that's not legal if however this the city council decided to allow short-term rentals either on a case-by-case basis with a with a with a conditional use permit or with a zoning change or with some other by right option and then a later date decided to change the rules for that property or that zoning district or that neighborhood then yes under our zoning ordinance that use that is legal that's operating that is legal but then becomes not legal or not allowed in that zoning going forward then that use may continue indefinitely we have a legal nonconforming section of our zoning ordinance that describes the rights for properties that are deemed to be legal nonconforming after a zoning change occurs and generally if that use continues without there is not discontinued for two years or more then that use can continue indefinitely so not sure if I said that correctly if you have anything to add what I would add is if the council decided to allow them then we would have a registration period where if then council decided to change it we would look to see if they were originally registered so they would have to be able to prove that at some point they did come into whatever the city's requirements were for short-term rentals at that time okay we registered right we wouldn't we wouldn't grandfather a property that was operating as a short-term rental that had never come into compliance with the city's ordinance okay very good all right this next one's a long one let's see bed and breakfast homes are narrowly defined as being limited to see a property with an existing structure as of December 1 1993 short-term rentals are not so narrowly defined okay so yes so the there is a reference in the bed and breakfast ordinance to structures that were are and so we would likely simplify if option 2 were selected for treating short-term rentals similarly to bed and breakfast homes or bed and breakfast in's okay let's see option 2 again this is the bed and breakfast option option 2 as stated suggests but does not expressly state that the existing supplemental use standards applicable to bed and breakfast homes and in's would be applied to short term rentals in those districts where short-term rentals are allowed does option 2 contemplate retaining the existing standards or will those standards be strengthened or weakened and so I would say that generally staff would suggest that those existing standards be retained for bed and breakfast if the city council chose option 2 but again it's within city council's discretion to add to lead or modify any of those supplemental standards that's it and the next question is related since option 2 does not explain what supplemental use standards will be applied how can citizens possibly evaluate option 2 in an informed manner and so again our staff suggestion would be that we would apply the same supplemental use standards since many citizens do not believe that either bed and breakfast homes or bed and breakfast in's belong in residential neighborhoods will the council be presented with an additional option barring all bed and breakfast homes and bed and breakfast in's other than those legally operating today in the city's residential districts and so unless the city council asked us to address bed and breakfast homes and bed and breakfast in's specifically we are not recommending any changes to those ordinances at this time. Is Fort Worth going to start monitoring long-term rentals and so let me ask Shannon generally I believe we require rental registration for properties that have more than is three three or more units. Correct. Is there any monitoring or registration for long-term rental or of single family homes. So technically yes there if we come across a one or two family home that has severe code violations and has tenants there is the ability to require registration of those homes. But just in general your average rental unit is not monitored by the city of Fort Worth. And I think the only exception would probably be the TCU overlay where we've got the rental registration but just within that geographic area around TCU is that sound right I was trying to remember. For their legal non-conforming status if they were operating prior to the ordinance going into effect. Okay just with regard to the number of people if they had more than three people so it's a pretty narrow category so very narrow yes yeah very narrow category okay okay good. Let's see let me ask Melinda about this one to take a quick look at that question and then let me see I think that's the last of the questions that I had. Okay so so this this basically question is asking for an explanation for some of the Texas case law surrounding STRs. There are essentially right now two two different lines of cases that are going through the through the legal system one as it relates to municipalities that have adopted short-term rental ordinances and property owners challenging those ordinances and then a second line of cases that are essentially property HOAs or POAs that are suing property owners for violating their covenants and restrictions so specifically the tar versus timberwood case that is that was a case between a homeowners association and a property owner with regard to their covenants and restrictions and what was allowed under those covenants and restrictions and the Texas Supreme Court determined based on the language of those particular deed restrictions that the use was residential as it relates to the deed restrictions and that the homeowners association couldn't enforce their covenant and restriction to disallow short-term rentals. You know as we've previously stated short-term rentals the city's regulation of short-term rentals is through our police power and it's not so it's not a contractual matter between the parties so the decision in the tar versus timber wood doesn't directly correlate to allowing as a residential use in the line of cases that involve municipalities and property owners those cases are still ongoing a couple are at the appellate level and have asked for certification to the Texas Supreme Court one involves the city of Arlington one involves the city of Grapevine this and those are those court cases are still the process and those are the line of cases that the city is most interested in. Thank you all right did we get some additional questions okay thank you all right so let's see this question if there's a short-term rental next door to me or down the street for me as there is which is a business how will that affect my house taxes so my understanding and the city does not assess the value of properties that's handled through the tech the the tax assessor's office and the Terran appraisal to say the tax assessor's office collects the taxes but the appraisal districts for the various counties determine the value of properties and so generally if you look up your property say if you go to the the TAD website and look up a particular property the appraisal districts use a state land use code to define the general use of a property I believe they use a one as the land use code for residential properties and so it would I think it would depend on whether or not the appraisal district knows whether or not a property is used for a commercial purpose or not my guess is they would treat a single family dwelling as an a1 land use and assess it accordingly for value irrespective of what might be occurring inside the home that's my guess and then our short terminals taxed as a business or as a residential property again that would relate to the appraisal districts land use code that they've assigned to that property again my guess is that if it's in a residential dwelling particularly single family or one family or two family that it's taxed as a as a residential property I believe multifamily properties might be considered or you know taxed it's a different land use code but I'm not sure if I would call it a business but it might be considered a commercial property for multifamily but then again short-term rentals that are legally operating in the city should would be taxed it would need to be paying their hotel occupancy tax it's not part of the it's not part of their property or ad valorem tax but it's a separate tax that they would be required to pay particularly if they register with the city can a short-term rental owner who lives on the property still claim it as a homestead and again I'm we would refer you to the the appraisal district for their homestead exemption rules but if it's if it's your primary dwelling and you own the property then my guess is you would be able to claim it as a as a homestead how will the city handle 1700 conditional use permit applications at once and so I believe that's based on the assumption that there are 1700 short-term rentals that are operating illegally in residential districts and so that is something we've talked about with our our zoning team we don't expect 1700 conditional use permit applications for for reference we haven't had zoning cases or zoning change requests for short-term rental and so I don't anticipate that a majority of property owners who are operating short-term rentals illegally will necessarily choose to apply for a conditional use permit because of the public process the notification to neighbors and neighborhood associations so I don't anticipate that large volume of cases or applications but in any event there there likely would be some kind of increase if the city decided to proceed with registration and so we would consider having some what we would call an overage position or temporary positions or consultant to help us if needed with with those zoning change applications but there is a fee and that fee would for the conditional use permit would we'd be able to recoup our costs if there were that staff impact would it be possible to have a local owner requirement instead of owner occupied where the owner must live within 15 miles of Fort Worth this ensures that local this ensures local small investments and not big corporations so again that's something that the City Council could consider as an option we as staff would not recommend that but that is something that the City Council could consider is there data that's been gathered to help quantify the risks of short-term rentals and maybe the difference between investor versus resident owned so again in terms of data or we are collecting data on short-term rentals that are operating in Fort Worth to learn which ones are investor owned versus resident or owner occupied but with respect to data on the risks of short-term rentals the City is not gathering that data but there's certainly a number of studies across the country that have looked into that very question are you concerned that the city will spend all this time on the ordinance and then the Texas Supreme Court will rule on the legality of people being able to do what they want with their own personal property that they own so certainly the Texas the state legislature has brought up short-term rental legislation over the last several I think legislative sessions we've seen bills filed that would reduce or preempt municipal authority to regulate short-term rentals I don't I don't know that I'm particularly concerned about a Texas Supreme Court ruling but we'll of course abide by it if one is issued that that addresses you know city's ability to to address short-term rental but certainly the mayor and council are aware of the court cases and can can decide how they want us to proceed to clarify is it left to the neighbors to report any violations and so I would say currently that is the case that that the code compliance responds to complaints about occupancy or zoning violations and so short-term rental would be able to fall in that category and so it's again a reactive practice rather than being proactive that's one of the questions that we will likely pose to the city council in August is whether they would expect or want code compliance to add resources in order to be able to be more proactive in enforcing short-term rental activity let me ask Shannon if you have anything to add to that or if that sounds correct that's what we're doing right now is complaint based address specific yes okay our HOA is exempt from any ordinance change the answer to that is no all property within Fort Worth is subject to our zoning ordinance so they are not exempt I have a home that sits on an acre spacious five bedroom home is there an exemption or leniency to the amount of people for short-term rentals that have space to host larger gatherings etc and so again depending on which zoning option the city council chooses that would be something that they could consider so for example if there were a zoning change that's approved for a property or if they decide to allow a conditional use permit option for a property then in approving that they can stipulate the operating standards of the occupancy standards for that property so that would be would be an option to increase the occupancy with so many currently operating in every zone of the city with a minimal negative effect shouldn't we be able to have responsible hosts apply for permits to operate a short-term rental in any zone to have accountability and regulations to benefit all so I think this is saying if the if the city council puts in place a registration ordinance and a registration platform shouldn't those shouldn't all property owners be allowed to apply or to register and have that accountability and the regulations and so again it comes down to the current zoning ordinance doesn't allow short-term rental in our residential zoning districts and so the individual property owner would need to apply for a zoning change in order to become legal or the city council would need to select a zoning option or create a zoning option that would enable short-term rental to be legal in different ways or in different places of the city so the area zoned conditional in yellow can we apply for a conditional use permit even if our home is a single family home I believe this is referring to the map that we have through our our zoning assist tool online and I believe the the areas that might have the yellow color on them it's the the term conditional isn't related to a conditional use permit I believe it's likely related to a specific zoning or unique zoning that's in place for that property so again at this point if you have residential zoning you're not currently able to apply for a conditional use permit within within the city of Fort Worth but if if the particular person asking this question wants to look up a particular address and email that to us we can follow up on that particular question and dig into that a little bit more will it consider consider that once short-term rentals are allowed the certified registered homes will be under scrutiny so yes I think that's correct if the city council chooses to adopt a registration ordinance and have a registration platform that will be public information and so and there will be those operating standards that we reviewed and so yes those properties would be would be under under scrutiny can we consider a one per block rule instead of a five to ten percent of the block as it as a density limit and so I believe the answer would be yes that could be could be considered by the city council as an option how many single-family residential homes currently exist in the green zone I think this is again referring to the zoning map that shows the areas where short-term rental is allowed and in the green color and so I think it's fair to say that there are not very many single family neighborhoods or single-family homes that are zoned for mixed-use commercial or industrial and so again that speaks to the fact that if most short-term rental activity is occurring in single-family homes then most of that activity is is not legal today how many homes or habitable structures are located in the green areas on the map where short-term rentals are currently located again I think that relates to the prior question I think there are in terms of homes or habitable structures there are probably quite a large number of multifamily homes and multifamily structures that are located in the green areas again within our mixed-use districts like downtown the medical district near south side near west side north side several areas along oh there we go thank you Aya several areas along the interstates and the tollway Chisholm Trail Parkway and other places centerport some good examples so there's a number of multifamily homes and habitable structures in those green areas but if if the question is specifically about single-family dwellings there are probably not as not as many although we've got a few areas within the central city where we do have single-family homes that are zoned commercial or even rarely industrial but again the vast majority of single-family homes are not in the green area how will Fort Worth improve code compliance with only 278 short-term rental complaints versus 307,000 307,000 households how will we improve code compliance so again the current operation for code compliance is on a complaint basis and so the in terms of improving code compliance that would be a change to our current policy and practice and we would want that direction from City Council on whether they want code compliance to be more proactive in enforcing short-term rentals has a complete analysis been done within Fort Worth of complaints versus guests and visits and the answer to that would be no we've not not done an analysis of that although we'll begin to gather some of that information once we have the data mining results to have a better understanding of how many short-term rentals are operating and whether we can estimate or gather the information on how many bookings have occurred has an economic impact study been completed to include all incoming dollars into Fort Worth how will Fort Worth make up for the loss of income so we've not done an economic impact study for short-term rentals so I don't have that information and what protection is there for hosts dealing with neighbors who don't agree with short-term rental as a neighbor and are consistent in submitting invalid complaints can a neighbor be banned for abusing the system or harassing a short-term rental host so that's a good question so me turn to you Shannon is there have you I'm sure you've seen instances where neighbors in maybe in a few cases have called repeatedly on a particular home and talk to us about how you determine what's a valid complaint and what's not a valid complaint yes so we investigate all complaints that we receive most of them are anonymous but we do when we have complaining information we will reach out to that complainant and have conversations with them about what we have found in situations where we have a complainant that continues to submit a violation that we have deemed is not a violation our goal is to educate that complainant to let them know why it is it is not a violation that's not always possible in anonymous situations but but that is our goal but once we have shown improved that they are not in violation we don't continue to what some people like to call harass yeah the individual good all right anything else okay all right so I think I got through that set of questions let me set these aside for a second all right can we see how Frisco and Galveston stack up on your city on your cities by city comparison chart in the future I've heard that they have good success with their regulation yes and we can certainly look at that we chose not to include Galveston because that is a tourist destination city where much of their the number of people who are in Galveston fluctuate greatly seasonally because of the nature of it being on you know on the coast and so it's a different kind of makeup if you will of visitors versus residents compared to Fort Worth and then we will also look at Frisco but again expect it to be different from from Fort Worth but certainly no reason not to look at it and should be transparent about that information will the city consider allowing accessory dwelling units to be used for short-term rental so again that goes back to whether or not the city council chooses to consider any options beyond retaining the existing zoning ordinance so today if you wanted to use an accessory dwelling unit as a short-term rental you would need to obtain a zoning change in order to allow that use to occur on your property doesn't matter whether it's in the primary structure or in the accessory dwelling unit that is an option that the city council could consider in terms of distinguishing the short-term rental of a primary dwelling versus the accessory dwelling my sense is that the from a compliance standpoint that it will be difficult for code compliance to monitor whether the short-term rental activity is limited to the accessory dwelling unit versus the the primary home that true yeah so anyway so that's a that's a consideration that I think it would be difficult for code compliance what is the timeframe for the city council to finish the process and put into place their decision so we don't know that yet we'll we plan to go to the city council in mid august to provide them with a briefing on a couple of things one would be the information that we've shared tonight with the registration standards and the zoning options we would also want to share the the the comments and and questions that we've received from the public via the website via email via our public meetings as well as through our thought exchange tool that we first of all encourage you to go check out but we'll also be sharing prior to mid august we hope with the city council and with the public the results of our data mining effort to see where short-term rental activity is occurring and the nature of that short-term rental activity whether it's conducted with owner occupied dwellings or investor owned dwellings and then also the frequency of bookings or the the intensity of the use basically of the short-term rental so we'll be presenting all of that information to the city council in mid august and then we'll receive guidance from them on what they see as next steps whether that's to to move forward or not with any changes to our ordinances or or take any other action could an overlay go into single family zoning districts where in that section not sure I understand the question couldn't overlay go into single family zoning districts where in that section they can do short-term rentals I'm not sure I understand the question but let me answer it a couple of different ways so again the city council could choose to create an overlay district similar to what they did with TCU to have some different occupancy rules for a geographic area so within our zoning ordinance we would we haven't believe we have an overlay chapter where we discuss overlay districts and so that's where that information would be in the zoning ordinance and would define what uses are allowed and under what conditions within that overlay district and then if there were just the as as Melinda described an individual conditional use permit granted where it's an overlay district for that specific property again that information would be within our our zoning database so that as you looked up that property you would see both the base zoning and the conditional use permit overlay that goes on top of it see there are parking and party issues with the new homeowner pool rental industry will this be regulated as well or do they get a free ride while short-term rentals are regulated so the pool rental would be a different activity than a short-term rental which is an overnight stay or lodging in a home and so pool rental is not allowed as I understand it within our residential district so we would not be allowing pool rental with any with any changes if any to our short-term rental standards but Shannon have you received pool rental complaints that you're aware of so we have not received any complaints that I am aware of but we have had the discussion just regionally with different code enforcement agencies that this is becoming a new hot topic so we're having those discussions yeah yeah so again that use would not be allowed within our our residential zoning districts the pool rental why are other people allowed to run small businesses out of their homes in residential neighborhoods but not a short-term rental and so the the city does have a home occupancy ordinance which does allow certain kinds of home occupancies to occur within a home where again it's still primarily a residential use of the structure I'm trying to think of some good examples of a home occupancy I suppose it could be someone perhaps as an acting in as an a providing services as an attorney or perhaps an accountant providing tax returns but do you happen to remember Melinda what the process is for home occupancy if there's any particular permitting or other zoning changes required there's not any particular permitting that's required or a zoning change that's required because it's a lad by right in single family but there are development standards that you do have to comply with in order to do a home occupation yeah I think they're fairly restrictive as I recall in terms of maybe the number of visitors or people who might work for it relates to number of the number of employees that can work there the number of visitors that essentially that it's very limited as to visitors the parking that's required where the activity is actually taking place it has to take place in the in the structure itself or in the garage or in an accessory structure it's pretty limited in terms of that okay let's see has there been any talk about allowing short-term rentals in opportunity zones considering opportunity zones offer tax incentives to induce gentrification so I'm not aware of any talk about short-term rentals and opportunity zones and I'm assuming this is referring to the opportunity zones that the state has designated within several cities and the tax incentives associated with that but I've not heard of any relationship between short-term rentals and opportunity zones how and why does the city define short-term rental use as commercial when the Supreme Court has ruled it as residential albeit in a slightly different context but since there is precedent why isn't the city following it and creating an ordinance per the precedent set by the Texas Supreme Court and again I'll let Melinda chime in on this but again from a land use and zoning standpoint the the city planners and zoning staff not just in Fort Worth but but across the country consider the commercial lodging to be a different use the lodging in a home to be a different use than a use that's a regular rental or owner occupancy of a structure and so again that's staff's recommendation that we consider to continue to distinguish short-term rental from residential use as a commercial lodging activity and one that is required to pay hotel occupancy tax I would agree with that and then just add that the cases I believe the the commenter is referring to are related to the interpretation the court's review of covenants and restrictions indeed restrictions as it applies to homeowners associations and property owners associations while that argument is being made in the line of cases as it relates to municipalities and property owners the court has has not yet the Texas Supreme Court has not yet reached that full conclusion but the court in the cases involving cities thus far has not stated that cities are in any way preempted from regulating short-term rentals kind of whichever category they fall into that the city still has the police power to regulate short-term rentals okay great thank you all right okay these are the questions I we've already talked discussed the Frisco and Galveston accessory dwelling units and and others do we have any additional questions that have come in all right I don't believe we have any so I think we've gotten through all the questions but want to encourage everyone to visit the city's website on short-term rentals to submit your comments and questions through the website feel free to again email us directly if you'd like to participate in the thought exchange and give your comments and opinions we would appreciate it very much Michelle anything else oh okay wait okay all right please hold on for us we've got three more questions that are coming in right now all right thank you how were the four options that assume the zoning options how were the four options developed and who was involved in developing these and so I was involved in developing the four options along with Daniel a all who's our assistant director in development services for zoning and design review also with Shannon elder is our assistant director with code compliance and I'm probably ran him by Melinda as our deputy city attorney before bringing them forward so it was basically your your zoning zoning and zoning compliance teams were involved with that what Texas cities has Fort Worth staff consulted with to gain an understanding of what has worked well with their short-term rental ordinance and what has not and so we've talked with a few of the cities not all of them that were that were on that on that chart I've talked with a few of the zoning staff in Arlington in Dallas I believe Daniels talked with folks in El Paso and some of the other cities and Shannon I think you mentioned that there's some code compliance groups that have talked about short-term rentals regionally correct as well but again depending on some of the the direction that City Council might give us that may lead us to do more outreach with those communities to answer specific questions about their experience with with short-term rentals can they consider that host volunteer that hosts volunteer and attend training to monitor and research complaints that come in so yes certainly the we would welcome and the opportunity for short-term rental hosts to to volunteer and attend training in fact I believe the short-term rental alliance in Fort Worth has offered to provide training and good neighbor kinds of materials for hosts and for hosts to share with their guests and then in terms of monitoring and researching complaints that come in certainly you know folks are welcome to do that if we have a registration platform then we would have be gathering that information about complaints and and what you know what where they're located and what the topic is for those complaints all right let me just wait another few minutes and see if any more questions come in no more questions at this point okay thanks Michelle all right again thank you all very much for joining us this evening and for submitting your questions to us please continue to do so you should see on the screen the the email that that you can submit questions and comments on as well as our website Fort Worth Texas dot gov forward slash str certainly look forward to hearing from you as we continue this this conversation about short-term rentals thank you all very much